Sensex jumps over 200 points in early trade; Nifty above11,600

New Delhi: Markets opened in the positive zone on Thursday tracking gains in financial stocks and persistent foreign fund inflow ahead of the expiry of monthly derivative contracts.

The BSE Sensex was trading 200.06 points or 0.51 per cent higher at 39,273.98 while the NSE Nifty was up 52.75 points or 0.46 per cent at 11,602.35.

Major gainers in the Sensex pack were IndusInd Bank, HDFC, Tech Mahindra, Axis Bank, M&M, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, SBI, HCL Tech, Infosys, Powergrid and Sun Pharma, rising upto 3.12 percent. On the other hand, major losers were Bajaj Auto, Maruti, Bajaj Finance, ONGC, HUL, Ultrachem, RIL, Nestle, Bajaj Finserve, Bharti AIrtel, and LT, falling upto 1.72 percent.

MSCI`s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan turned flat after earlier reaching its highest since August 2018.

Japan`s Nikkei eased 0.4% from levels not seen since mid-February, and South Korea fell 0.8% as a jump in coronavirus cases ended four days of rises.

Even S&P 500 futures dipped 0.2%, although that followed five straight sessions of gains.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 0.11 per cent higher at USD 46.21 per barrel.

In the previous session, the Sensex closed 39,073.92, up 230.04 points or 0.59 per cent. The NSE Nifty advanced 77.35 points or 0.67 per cent to finish at 11,549.60.

Exchange data showed that foreign institutional investors bought equities worth Rs 1,581.31 crore on a net basis on Wednesday.

(With agency inputs)